Letter from wales: This is not the way to show that Labour will spend carefully – Uncut 6.2.14

Cameron’s Tories are for a small government and to hell with the consequences, Ed’s Labour is for a more benevolent government with a steady eye on cost.

Welsh Labour is for an out and out free for all and to hell with cost.

I would ask readers to note that last month BBC Wales reported that the Welsh government has employed 400 extra civil servants in the last two years while the number employed across the UK fell.

The number of civil servants employed by the Scottish government also fell.

So much for Carwyn’s restraint on public spending then. It’s business as usual at the Senate and “Come on boyos, it’s only taxpayers’ dosh and while we’re at it, let’s go and watch some rugby at one of our subsidised boozers in Cardiff Bay!”

So, how does Carwyn and his Team Druid justify yet another manic departure from Westminster Labour policy?

You tell me, but apparently and according to a Welsh government spokesperson it’s all down to “a successful apprenticeship programme which has seen over 150 young people trained for future employment, many of whom have successfully gained permanent employment within the Welsh government.”

In other words there’s no private, engineering or manufacturing sector in Wales because no-one will invest here without being bribed with taxpayers’ money, so we in Cardiff Bay will take up the slack and really make the Welsh public sector the biggest in Europe. Apart from anything else, at least we keep any criticism under wraps because who is going to bite the hand that feeds it? What’s an extra 400 civil servants for some apprenticeships anyway?!

But the best bit of course is the fact that Carwyn is always tearing his hair out and knashing his teeth over what he perceives as a lack of bucks from his paymaster’s in Westminster!

Readers I feel, need to be reminded that 85% of Welsh GDP comes from Westminster, a figure which is often ignored by the Welsh nationalist community and a figure that is mostly paid by English taxpayers, albeit that since devolution there has been a growing anti-English trend afoot in the bars, coffee shops and institutions of Wales. Biting the hand that feeds it, perhaps?

I digress, but I would also like to bring to readers’ attention the recent Team Druid push for the merging of local councils in Wales (and no, I’m not about to write a small state Tory pamphlet!) from 22 to 10 or 12.

Without doubt there is need for reform of Welsh local government in respect of its local authorities (some are so small as to be a complete waste of taxpayers’ money), however the Welsh Local Government Association estimates the costs of said merger at £200m.

So, the question must be asked: Is the time right?

We all know how working people and benefit claimants are being squeezed by the cost of living. We all know about deficits and government debt. But Carwyn and his Team Druid are still insisting on squeezing taxpayers until the pips squeak and they aren’t even property speculators!

400 new civil servants and now £200m for a merger that could wait until the country can better afford it – and I’m talking here about the UK, Wales is a principality not a sovereign state, notwithstanding that Welsh nationalist propaganda would have you believe otherwise; the reality is, as Michael Buerk put it, that Wales is just “England with an accent and a good singing voice”.

One is therefore left with the question: Does Welsh Labour have any idea at all about what is going on in the country or the world for that matter?

But then in Wales, the moderate majority will always take flight when chased by insular Welsh language ultra-nationalism and xenophobia.

Julian Ruck is an author, journalist and columnist. He also makes contributions to both Welsh and national broadcasting and media

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I am the author of four novels to date: Ragged Cliffs, Inheritance Lost and An Equal Judge make up the Treharne Saga, and my latest novel, The Bent Brief, tells the story of a lawyer who accidentally kills his wife when he finds her in bed with another woman.
My upcoming novels, The Silver Songsters and All Gas No Oil are to be published over the next 18 months.
Follow the link to my website at the top of this page to read the first chapters of all 6 novels.

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